[Jurisimprudence]

I have a 1997 Sport with the I6 and a standard trasmission. I put a 4.5 inch RE long arm lift on it about 6 months ago, and I've had a few interesting problems arise, the most notable of which started with my transfer case shifter. Apparently, the cross member/skid plate that comes with the kit lifts the transfer case up about an inch or so over stock. Absent a body lift, this tends to cause the opposite problem that many people experience when lifting their jeep. Instead of needing to use washers, etc. to lift the transfer case back into a more stock-like position, the transfer case sits even higher and can't be lowered (which is sort of a good thing from a ground clearance standpoint, but causes other problems from a linkage standpoint). So, as a result, I could still shift into 4H and 4L, the only problem was that 4L didn't engage at the bottom of the gate as it should. Instead, I had to shift up and around to the top of the gate before it would engage. This bothered me since their was nothing to stop me from accidentally bumping the shifter and knocking it into neutral. So, I took it to the local 4 Wheel Drive Performance Center in Dallas to see what they thought. They said that the linkage could not simply be adjusted (despite statements to the contrary from the RE tech. that I spoke with about the same issues. Instead, the 4 Wheel Drive Performance Center's solution was to put a 1 inch body lift on. This seemed to me to be overkill and a poor solution (sort of like lowering the floors in your house because a light switch is too low).

So, I began doing some research. I found that SkyJacker makes a bracket the moves the mounting from the body to the trasfer case and solves this problem. After locating a local SkyJacker rep. I took the Jeep there to see if they could fix it. At this point, I love these guys. After trying to install the bracket, they informed me that it was not going to work (as I recall the 97's are a bit weird or something), but that they could in fact adjust the linkage. Whoala! I picked it up and it shifted into 4H not above the gate, but rather at the bottom of the gate as it should. Unfortunately, this was not the end.

A few weeks later, I had parked my Jeep in 4H for the evening. The next morning, when I got in it, just as I let out the clutch, it made sort of a grinding sound (for barely a blink - I immediately put the clutch in and put in 2H). I have had no apparent problems in 2H and later on had no problems putting it in 4H or 4L. Initially, I assumed that I had simply pulled up to high and might have been sort of "straddling" the gate so that it was almost disengaging and going into neutral.

Well, guess what? I had my wife drop it off today to have some AEV rocker guards installed (yes, I know, I should do that myself - the install - but for the price I coudn't justify spending a weekend dealing with it (apparently their are something like 24 mounting points on each one). Any way, I digress. When leaving, it was raining very hard, and despite what some say, since the X-terrains are not great on wet pavement she put it in 4H, which I condone, because I'd rather wear out the tires than have her hyrdroplane into a semi or a tree. Apparently, the Jeep made a loud clank immediately after letting the clutch out in 2nd. gear. I suspect the linkage is now simply adjusted too far the other way and is "slipping" out of 4H into neutral.

Any thoughts?

I also wonder if I'm not experiencing some of the problems decribed in TSB 23-29-99 (which can be seen here).

Sorry for the long narrative, but I figured if someone else is having a similar problem, more detail is better than too little.